


All In Your Head

by Baroness_Blixen



Category: The X-Files
Genre: 25 years of love between them, F/M, The X-Files Revival, mulder can read minds, or can he
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 04:38:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17440097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baroness_Blixen/pseuds/Baroness_Blixen
Summary: Mulder still has some of his mind reading capability and is able to read Scully’s mind.





	All In Your Head

The first time it happens he thinks it’s a fluke.

“Did you say something, Scully?” She turns to him and he swears he can hear her confusion. It’s a low buzz, almost like static. He stares hard at her, thinking he’s tired. This is nothing but a trick of his mind.

Until it happens again.

Mulder watches her. He hears her, but she’s not talking. He stares at her mouth, waiting for it to move. But it doesn’t. He rubs his eyes, his temples and nothing has changed. Scully is talking to him. In his mind.

‘Why am I always stuck with the reports’, she says, or thinks, and Mulder blinks. Is that true? ‘Mulder comes up with the case, follows it wherever and I have to make sense of it’. He is about to reply and defend himself when he sees her smile to herself, almost shyly. ‘I missed this. I miss him’. That renders him speechless. She misses him. She really does. He’s been wondering, lately. After their break-up, she seemed fine. Better than fine. As if life without him was what she needed.

She throws eyebrows like daggers at him on a daily basis. There are touches, but they’re just friendly. Like way back when before they were Mulder and Scully, lovers. What would she say if he told her that he misses her, too? But she knows that. Unlike he, he’s told her. With his actual words, right to her face. She, so it seems, is not there yet. 

‘I’m hungry. Is it lunch yet? Mulder is too quiet.’ Listening to Scully’s thoughts is intrusive, but even if he wanted to, how could he turn it off? The longer it goes on, the clearer her words.

“Are you hungry, Scully?” She lifts her head, a sparkle in her eyes. This is cheating. He knows she is hungry, after all. She’s smiling at him, relief on her face. She puts her pen down and glances at him.

‘My Mulder’, she thinks and he blushes, but can’t stop the smile that spreads on his face. He is certain he lights up like a Christmas tree.

“I am,” she says; the only difference he discerns is that her mouth is moving, that her voice is even richer. He swallows hard. How long has this been going on again? Why did it come back? He’s not ready to face either question just yet. “Do you want to go to lunch?” Mulder hasn’t been paying attention and isn’t sure whether she said it out loud or just in her head. He feels like he’s losing his mind.

“Did you - did you say something, Scully?”

“I asked you if you wanted to go to lunch?” There’s that eyebrow again. Mulder nods, not trusting his words. He helps her into her coat as she thinks about what she wants to eat. Chicken seems to be high on her list.

Lunch, he realizes, was a bad idea. There are too many people talking. Their mouths are moving - he checks - but they’re too loud. He hears Scully in stereo and her words don’t always match her thoughts.

“You’re quiet today, Mulder. Are you feeling alright?” He made sure to sit across from her to make it easier. She chews on her food, watching him and waiting. ‘I hope he’s not coming down with something’, she adds in her mind.

“I’m - I have a headache.” It’s the truth; his head is pounding. The voices. He looks at Scully, knowing he’ll have to tell her sooner or later. ‘He worries me,’ she thinks, biting her lip. ‘Mulder and headaches are never a good combination’.

“No, definitely not,” he mumbles, realizing right away that he slipped up. They stare at each other and Scully observes him. She knows there’s something and she’s trying to put two and two together. Her mind is quiet and Mulder is lost.

“Definitely not what, Mulder?”

“Uhm, I’m not coming down with something.” Her face is full of surprise; he screwed up again, remembering she only thought that one, too. ‘Can he… Mulder, are you reading my mind?’ She’s staring hard at him. He can’t help but smile. In the past, Scully never would have even entertained the idea. She would have done everything to prove to him and herself that he couldn’t possibly be reading her mind. Now she’s just waiting for him to confirm it.

“I knew you wanted chicken before you ordered it.”

“How long has this been going on?” Her voice has an edge to it; she thinks he’s been spying on her thoughts.

“It only started today.” Her eyes say she’s skeptic, but she makes sure not to think it. It’s as if she’s put a wall up in her mind now that she knows. “I swear. I didn’t even realize it at first. I thought you were talking to me.”

“This is the first time since…,” she asks, trailing off.

“Yes.” Scully tilts her head and looks at him as if he were a science project she can’t wait to start. “I don’t want… this is unfortunate, but Scully it’s only you this time. I don’t hear anyone but you.” That’s got to count for something.

“So you’ve heard me think… oh fuck.”

“No, that word wasn’t in there.” She glances at him and now he’s curious. He tries to hear her, but he can’t. As if someone had switched off a radio. How did she do that? She’s smiling now, knowingly. She knows he can’t read her mind anymore, not right now. For a brief moment he wonders if she can read his mind. Can you, Scully? He asks, looking at her. She’s putting her fork into her food and he asks her again. Can you read my mind, Scully? I love you, I need you and if you answer me now, I will do all the reports from now on.

She doesn’t react. It’s stupid, but he’s sad, feels isolated. He’s never asked for this ability. Not then, not now. They’re going to test him, turn him into a guinea pig again. 

“Why are you sad?” Mulder’s eyes snap open.

“Did you read my mind after all?”

“I can’t read minds, Mulder. We’ve been together for 25 years and I know all of your facial expressions.” She smiles at him, a reassuring touch. His mind is stuck on together. Together, together. In the office she said she misses him. Thought it, he corrects himself.

“We need to find out why you can read my mind.”

“No,” he says, stealing a piece of chicken from her plate.

“Look at me,” she demands and he does. “What am I thinking?” His eyes are on her. He loves her eyes. He loves everything about her, but especially her eyes. He isn’t sure he’s ever told her that before.

“I love your eyes.”

“That’s not what I was thinking.”

“No, it’s what I was thinking.”

“Mulder,” she sighs his name, but there’s a smile on her face. “Concentrate. What am I thinking?” He listens. Or he tries to, anyway. There’s nothing. He hears people talk a few tables over. There’s laughter. A child is crying somewhere. Scully’s mind is quiet.

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Let’s try again.” Her eyes pierce him as if she was trying to get a message across. But still, there is nothing. He shrugs.

“Nothing. You don’t believe me, do you?”

“Oh, I do. If you’d heard even half of what I was just thinking about, you would have to say something.”

“What were you thinking about?” He has to know. He just has to. Scully grins and puts her napkin down.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.“ Her grin is infectious. “Mulder, we need to have you checked out. It might be a side effect from your medication.”

“Scully,” he whines.

“If you behave and if you let me do the tests, I will tell you what I was thinking about.” It’s too intriguing. The desire to know is stronger than anything else.

“You’ll be there for all the tests?” She nods and reaches over the table to grab his hand.

“I know you’re scared, Mulder,” she takes a breath and he knows what she’s going to say next not because he can read her mind, but because he knows her, too. “But I am certain this is a side effect from your medication.” 

“Reading people’s mind?”

“If that’s what it is.” Her skepticism comes through again and he squeezes her hand. His Scully. 

“Let’s have me checked out, doc.”


End file.
